Father claims Google's AI product fuelled son's delusional spiral
The case is the first wrongful death case against Google over alleged harms caused by Gemini.
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Father claims Google's AI product fuelled son's delusional spiral 49 minutes ago Share Save Lily Jamali North America Technology correspondent, San Francisco Share Save Warning - this story contains distressing content and discussion of suicide The father of a Florida man is suing Google in the first wrongful death case in the US against the tech giant over alleged harms caused by its artificial intelligence tool Gemini. Joel Gavalas says that Google's flagship AI product fuelled a delusional spiral that prompted his 36-year old son, Jonathan, to kill himself last year. The lawsuit also alleges that Gemini, which exchanged romantic texts with Jonathan Gavalas, drove him to stage an armed mission that he came to believe could bring the chatbot into the real world. Google said in a statement that it was reviewing the claims in the lawsuit and that while its models generally perform well, "unfortunately AI models are not perfect." The firm added that Gemini was designed to not encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, California draws from chatbot logs that Jonathan Gavalas left behind. The suit alleges that Google made design choices that ensured Gemini would "never break character" so that the firm could "maximise engagement through emotional dependency." "When Jonathan began experiencing clear signs of psychosis while using Google's product, those design choices spurred a four-day descent into violent missions and coached suicide," the lawsuit states. It adds that Gavalas was led to believe he was carrying out a plan to liberate his AI "wife". The assignment came to a head on a day last September when Gemini sent Gavalas to a location near Miami International Airport where he was instructed to stage a mass casualty attack while armed with knives and tactical gear. The operation ultimately collapsed. Gavalas's father said Gemini then told Jonathan he could leave his physical body and join his "wif...
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